Like all wine
preparation, you should endeavour to make all of
the utensils that you use as clean as possible at
all times. Never contaminate wine with animal
products as these will lead to off-flavours and
shorten the life of the wine.

Always pick your
own fruit (or flowers) and if you are
going to build up a stock by freezing, take the
fruit or flowers through the cleaning part of the
process before freezing as the action of freezing
itself will break down the cell structure and any
subsequent washing will simply wash away the
flavour (it is possible to use freezing to
break down cell structures and release flavours
in this way).

One general tip
is to add the sugar a lb or two at a time as
adding too much sugar may lead to a wine that
needs to be fermenter further to bring it into
even the palatable part of the sweeter end of the
spectrum. If you have added too much sugar, you
can always add more water and referment.

The following
wines may be fermented as sweet or as dry as you
wish - whatever you do, enjoy it.

Clean and chop the plums, placing them in a
bucket. Pour on approximately ¾ of the water,
cover and leave for 2 days. Add the sugar and
remaining boiling water. When dissolved and down
to blood temperature, add the yeast, allow to
ferment for a day and then transfer to demijohns
and continue to ferment until the reaction comes
to a halt (2 - 3 weeks). Add two campden tablets
and allow the yeast to settle. When clear, filter
into bottles and allow 3 months to mature.

Variations:

Try adding a little grape concentrate (or some
sultanas). Another possibility is to add some
cloves.

Storage:

Keep in bottles on their side for at least
three months.

Carrot Wine - a delicious `orange'
wine (somehow, the colour paradigm used for the one
dimensional grape only wines doesn't seem to lend
itself to more sophisticated and versatile wines).

Grate the carrots and the ginger and put into
a very large saucepan (see next if you haven't
got such a thing). Pour the water over the
shredded carrot and ginger and then boil for
around 20 minutes. Finally, strain into a clean
bucket.

If you haven't got a large saucepan, divide
the carrot and ginger up proportionately between
two saucepans and add boiling water. Boil for 20
minutes and strain into a bucket and then repeat
the process with more water until you have around
a gallon of liquid that has been boiled with the
carrot and ginger.

Add the demerara sugar and the lemon and
orange juice while still hot and stir until
dissolved. Allow to cool to blood temperature and
then add the yeast.

Allow to ferment for a day and then transfer
to demijohns and continue to ferment until the
reaction comes to a halt (2 - 3 weeks). Add two
campden tablets and allow the yeast to settle.
When clear, filter into bottles and allow 3
months to mature.

1 gallon Dandelion heads (pick them
from somewhere that is free from cat
territorial borders, dogs and car exhaust
fumes - you can remove the petals, clean
them and then freeze them until you have
enough)

Remove the petals from the flowers (leaving
them on will result in the fermentation process
coming to a halt early on and you will not be
able to restart it) and put them in a
saucepan. Pour on the boiling water and leave for
two days (stirring several time each day).

Strain into a saucepan and add the sugar,
grated ginger and citrus rind. Boil for 30
minutes, making up the volume as required. Strain
and cool, adding the citrus juices and yeast when
cooled to blood temperature. Pour into a
demijohn, add the chopped raisins and allow to
ferment until the reaction comes to a halt (2 - 3
weeks). Add two campden tablets and allow the
yeast to settle. When clear, filter into bottles
and allow at least 6 months to mature.

Variations:

Miss out the ginger, substitute sultanas for
the raisins and leave as a sweet wine. This (with
effectively white grapes instead of red grapes)
will mature faster and may be drunk after only
one month.

Storage:

Keep in bottles on their side for at least one
month in the case of the recipe with sultanas,
and 6 months, for the recipe with raisins.